Supreme Court Wiki

Objectives: SWBAT
-connect last week’s topic with this week’s topic.
-Identify what we already know about the Supreme Court.
-Create a list of questions we still have about the Supreme Court.
Connection

· The Supreme Court must deal with these Arizona laws.
· If the state courts cannot solve it then it goes to the Supreme Court.
· Made up of 9 judges.
· Mother of all courts.

Podcast

· Gives anyone the right to sue if the law isn’t enforced.
· Distraction from larger issues.
· The Supreme Court decides if a law is constitutional and they are deciding if the Arizona law justifies the 14th amendment.
· Obama and the Federal government are questioning the constitutionality of the Arizona law.
Vocabulary Terms

· Precedent –noun: a prior court case having similar characteristics that can be used to solve a current court case. How is precedent used?
· Chief Justice – The head of Supreme Court, who makes the final decision. Who is the current Chief Justice? How is the Chief Justice chosen?
· Conservative/liberal – moral beliefs of the two political parties: republican and democratic. Conservatives keep tradition and stick to the constitution. Liberals are open minded.
· Confirmation hearing – a meeting to confirm make the final decision A process to confirm if a person can be a chief of justice.
· Majority Opinion – conclusion of the multiple opinions on a topic. The preferred opinion of a group. Does the opinion turn into a vote? 9 Judges
Supreme Court: what I already know and what I want to know
What I know

· There is one chief justices and 8 other Judges
· The Supreme Court has the final say in a law that cannot be solved with a state court.
· The supreme court is the most powerful courts
· President nominates a chief justice.

What I want to know

· When was the first Supreme Court made and why was it made?
· Are there any laws that a supreme court can’t touch?
· What are the powers of the Chief Justice? He only gets 1 vote?
· Does the supreme court try to create diversity to prevent bias.
· What are the qualifications to be in the Supreme Court?
· Is there a balance of democratic and republicans
· Do justices consider the opinions of the people? What do they consider?
· What was the most current Supreme Court case? Is the BP oil spill a Supreme Court case?
· How many women have served on the Supreme Court?

How do conservatives and liberal roles play out in supreme court?

Supreme_Court_Inspiration.jpg
Closing
7/13/10

We used tokbox and it was kind of a FAIL, because there was a lot of technical issues with connection, video and sound. Since we didn't get it working too long we didn't have time to share much. I only learned a little about John G. Roberts, the current Chief Justice. We tried getting mutliple people on tokbox at once but it just made things worse.

I think it can be used in schools in the future if it didn't lag and have so many problems. In my personal life, I would personally download a better video chat program because of the better quality. However tokbox is convenient for those who can't or do not want to download and install a program, because it can be accessed right on the website. Since it is all on one website and everyone is on at the same time it becomes very slow and laggy.